The Investigation
This story is part of the Dimensional Jumping series, please be sure to read part one before continuing... 'The Investigation' by Nico Wonderdust I thought back to the sound of the screeching tyres that woke me, and it was only now that I'd realized... It was the sound of my own screeching tyres that woke me, it was me driving the car that hit the woman at the end of my street, and it was my own mother laying by the side of the road as the snow was quickly covering her in a thick white blanket. I knew that any minute now I was going to come running out of my door to see my mum laying in the road after I had run her down, I needed to get away, I put my foot down and went speeding past my house, looking up at my bedroom window to see myself pulling back the curtain and wiping the frost from the other side of the glass. I now know that the dream I had of my mum being run over wasn't really a dream, what I saw was essentially a flash-forward of my jump between dimensions. All these years I've been praying for a way to see my mum and when I finally find a way, I find out that I was the hit and run driver who killed her. I didn't know what to do or where to go, all I knew is that I had to get off my street before the police show up, I didn't want to just leave my mum laying there like that, but I had to find a way to fix this! "Maybe I could just jump again" I thought to myself, "Maybe I could go back to before I hit my mum and prevent it" I still wasn't fully aware of the rules and limitations of dimensional jumping, or if time travel was even possible through jumping, but I had to try. I carried on driving until I reached the forest just on the outside of town and then parked up, it was at that moment that reality set in, "Shit!" I shouted, breaking down in a fit of tears, "I'm so sorry, mum! ... I'm so sorry, I'll fix this, I promise" I took the keys out of the ignition, ripped the panel off from under the steering wheel and used my house key's jagged edge to cut the wires, making it look like my car had been stolen, then I got out of the car and started removing the licence plates too and sat back down in the car, throwing the broken up licence plates to the back seat, "What are you doing? This is crazy" I thought to myself, wondering if I was doing the right thing, "Of course I'm doing the right thing! I need to save mum!" I then proceed to cut into the passenger seat removing a section of fabric, ripping the fabric into two pieces, I pressed in the car's cigarette lighter, climbed out of my car and placed one of the two pieces of fabric into the fuel tank before heading back to the driver's seat. As soon as the lighter had popped back out, I held it against the second piece of fabric, lightly blowing it until it caught fire, I then climbed out of my car, set the fabric in the fuel tank on fire, and began my long, cold walk home. On my walk home my mind began racing and I was struggling to come to terms with the fact I had just killed my own mum and fled the scene like a common, cold-blooded, drunk driver running into a random pedestrian as he raced home from his local pub, trying to avoid being caught by the police, but I didn't hit a random pedestrian, I hit my mum... After 20 minutes I reached the garage where I had been earlier for fuel and flowers for my mum, I found myself once again walking through those sliding doors, heading straight for the alcohol section, and getting the biggest bottle of Jack they had on sale and hiding it under my jacket, my friend used to work here and I remember him telling me how the CCTV it's really messed up and always loops during recording, so it wouldn't be hard to steal from here, I then proceeded to head over to the crisps aisle, looking for the cheapest bag I can find, I didn't want to look too suspicious, "25p, damn! I've only got 23p on me" I thought to myself, "Oh well, may as well try my luck" I took the crisps over to counter and the cashier, a slim, spotty kid with thick, greasy hair and glasses, who was no older than 18, ran them through the till, "Is that everything?" he asked, looking at me as if he knew what I had concealed, "Yeah thanks" I replied, "Alrighty then, that'll be 25 pence please" I reached my hand into my pocket and pulled out the 23p I knew was there, "I'm sorry mate" I said, "I've only got 23 pence, is there anything you can do?" "It's 25 pence... mate" he replied in a cocky tone of voice, "It's 2 pence difference, you're going to refuse service for the sake of 2 pence?" I questioned, somewhat annoyed It's not the fact that I actually wanted the damn crisps anyway, but the way he had spoken right then slightly pissed me off and I really wasn't in the mood for the little brats attitude, "20... 5... pence, please" he responded "Listen, you snot-nosed little prick!" I exclaimed, throwing the 23 pence in his face and grabbing the crisps, "You're going to take that 23 pence and be happy you got that! And if you even think about trying to follow me out of this shop I promise you now, I will fill you up from one of those petrol pumps and stick a match down your throat, you little shit!" A bit over the top over a 25 pence bag of crisps if you ask me, but my head was all messed up from what had happened earlier, and I just wanted to get out and nurse my bottle of Jack, I probably could have just walked away without the crisps, but once he started being cocky I just lost it. I began walking towards my home when I passed a park along the way, taking a detour I went into the park to find myself a bench to sit on, in the center of the park was a small shelter you would occasionally find homeless people sleeping in, but not on a night like this, I don't know where they went when a blizzard hit, but they didn't come here, "Snot-nosed little... haha" I mumbled to myself, opening the bottle and taking a big swig, "Poor kid didn't know where to look..." 10 minutes of sitting here and half a bottle later, I began finding the smell of urine in the shelter a bit too... Potent, and since sitting down I started to feel how cold it really was and Jack was doing me no favours, so I rose to my feet, let out a big sigh, left my little shelter from the snow and staggered home. "10 minutes" I slurred, "10 minutes and I'll be home, just enough time to finish you off" I continued, speaking to the half empty bottle I was holding. I must have been walking really slow, it took me about half an hour to get home from that park, of course, swaying all over the pavement didn't help me either, once I got back, I dropped the empty bottle just outside my door while searching for my keys to let myself in, "Damn it! Ugh, I'll clean it up tomorrow" I thought After 3 attempts I finally managed to line my key up with the keyhole, unlocked my door, and went straight up to my room, throwing my snow covered coat onto the floor by the bed and passing out the minute I laid down. I was awakened at 11am the next morning to a loud banging on my front door, slightly disorientated and hung over, I rolled out of bed and made my way downstairs, "One minute!" I shouted as the banging continued, "One minute! I'm coming, jeez!" Upon opening the door a man introduced himself as Detective Jenkins, "Alex Clark?" he asked "Err... Yes?" I replied, thinking he was here for me, Looking back I now know how dumb that must seem, I knew there was no way he could have known I'd run my own mother over the night before, and the policed certainly wouldn't send a detective out for my antics in the garage, "Mr Clark" He continued, "Your mother was involved in an accident last night" "Oh my God! Is she ok?" I questioned "Unfortunately not, Mr Clark, no, may we speak inside" "Of course, of course, come in!" I said, leading him into the living room, while trying to bring on a fake cry Walking through the door I headed over to the coal fire, throwing a couple of lumps on and igniting it out of paranoia, thinking there may somehow be a lingering smell of smoke on my clothing, "What happened? Where is she?" I asked the detective, "I was hoping maybe you could tell me" he said, looking at me suspiciously "No, why would I know anything?" "Well, Mr Clark, we spoke with your sister, she said you had just been round to see your mother, she said that she had told you how your mother was on her way round here to see you" "Correct Mr Jenkins, she did, and when my mother didn't turn up I went to the shop, got myself a bottle of whiskey and passed out" Erm, it's Detective Jenkins" he replied, "You mean that broken bottle of whiskey on your doorstep?" "Yes, I went to put it in the bin last night and dropped it, I was going to clean that up today" "And you didn't see anything at all?" "I couldn't see two feet in front of me to get the bottle in the bin, I certainly couldn't see the rest of the street" "And you hadn't seen or heard from your mother or sister since?" "No, detective" "And you didn't see anything last night?" "If I saw anything last night, then surely I would already know what's going on" I said, "No what happened to my mum" "She was killed in a hit and run accident last night, about 100 feet away from your front door, are you sure you didn't see or hear anything" "Oh sure Detective, I had a front seat view, I saw my mums head crack my windscreen, I saw her roll down the bonnet of my car and I heard the screech of the tyres over the excessively loud music coming from my cars speakers" I thought to myself, not stupid enough to tell him that, If he found out I was the driver responsible I'd get locked up and they'd throw away the key, I swore I'd fix this, how would I do that from behind bars? "No Detective, as I said, I got a bottle of whiskey and passed out on my bed, my mum didn't turn up and I hadn't seen anything on my way home" I told the Detective, finally forcing out a few crocodile tears, "Okay, that'll be all, for now, Mr Clark" the Detective said, turning around and heading for the front door "Okay Detective, please keep me updated" "I will" he said, heading out of the front door "Don't leave the dimension, I may have more questions I need to ask you" "I'm sorry?" "I said don't leave the country, you wouldn't want to seem suspicious now, would you?" "No, of course not Detective, have a good day" I said, shutting the door and heading straight for my computer. Signing onto my computer I went straight over to Reddit to check out the /r/DimensionalJumping subreddit to ask for a bit of advice, I said briefly what had happened, not mentioning that I was the one who had killed my mother, after 10 minutes of hitting the refresh button I finally got a reply from a familiar user, "Hello Friend, as I mentioned in my last message to you, nothing good ever comes from attempting a jump to resurrect a loved one, the last person I'm aware of who attempted this jumped to prevent his brother getting shot, ultimately, he died in his brother's place. If you bring someone back from the dead, there is an imbalance and somebody has to die to take their place, whether it's the person who died previously or somebody in their life, usually a family member, I'm sorry man, but that's just the way it is" "So that's it, there's nothing I can do" I thought, "Unless... Unless I jump to a dimension where I still have a sister, and she is the one who dies? I mean, I never had a sister in my dimension, she can take my mum's place" I thought about this for a while, but knew there was no guarantee I'd jump to a dimension where I have a sister and my mum is alive, but it's my sister that is taken in that dimension, and I'd be screwed if I was the one who killed my sister, there are so many different factors to take into consideration, but there has to be a way! I spent a couple of hours researching dimensional jumping and I thought I had finally found the answer, if "The Two Glasses Method" didn't work, surely "The Mirror Method" would, with this method I can just think of the exact dimension I want to jump to, however, it said the best time to attempt this method was between 12-3am, "Great!" I thought, "11 hours and I can give this a go, then just maybe, all this will be over" After taking some painkillers from my computer desk drawer, I threw a couple of logs and a fire-lighter block onto the smouldering embers where the raging fire once was, threw in a match then went and laid on my sofa to nurse my hangover. Laying there, I picked up the remote to see if there was anything on TV to pass the time, "Pokemon? This is still on?" I thought, "I only ever liked the first generation, Doctor Who seems quite fitting, and it's just starting" Leaving Doctor Who on it quickly became apparent this was a Doctor who was never The Doctor in my dimension, she was female for one thing! The story itself was great, but it was quite surreal seeing a female version of The Doctor, she had the wisdom and charisma of the original 10th Doctor, with a similar persona to the original 11th Doctor, and who better to play her than Karren Gillan, which is a shame because that means this dimension doesn't have the Amy Pond storyline. After the show had finished I quickly searched around my house for a candle, needed for the jump later tonight, I managed to find a pack of those thin birthday cake candles in one of my kitchen drawers, but figured they would burn out too quickly, so I melted all the wax into a small dish while holding one of the candles in the center, "That should do" I thought, taking it upstairs to my bathroom mirror, No sooner had I placed the makeshift candle in front of my mirror there was a banging at my door again, I rushed downstairs to open the door and to my shock, it was Detective Jenkins and one of his colleagues, "Alex Clark, I'm arresting you on suspicion of vehicular homicide, you do not have to say anything..." he started saying "Wait, whoa what?!" I shouted, "I haven't done anything!" "Nobody ever has, Mr Clark" the Detective's colleague said sarcastically, throwing me in the back of the van "Shit! How am I going to jump now?!" I thought to myself After he finished reading me my rights, the Detective closed the door and started speaking to his colleague just outside the van, I couldn't, however, make out what they were saying, no sooner had they finished talking I heard the front door of the van close and the engine start up. It wasn't long before we arrived at the police station and I was escorted from the van to the front desk, "Vehicular homicide is it, Mr Clark?" the officer behind the desk said, writing something down I just stood there silent, it wasn't homicide, I didn't intentionally kill anyone, I was still baffled as to how they knew it was me and I weren't willing to say a word to this smug looking prick. "Alright, send him away" he said, With that, I was then taken to a small room where an officer took my picture and all my finger prints before escorting me back to the front desk, "You can put your belonging in there" the officer behind the desk said, handing me a large, see-through bag, After emptying the contents of my pockets the officer handed me a horrible beige jumpsuit which would make a better paper towel than clothing it was that thin, he then requested my shoes and I was taken to a holding cell where they asked me to change and hand over my clothes before locking me in. The room I was in was freezing, it had no windows or bars like you see in the movies, there was one dim light on the ceiling, a toilet and a bed, no covers or pillow and the mattress slightly resembled a giant sponge, no thicker than the ones you use for washing up, it was hell in that room, I had no concept of time so I had no idea how long I'd been in there, I couldn't sleep as the room was far too cold and the so-called bed, was too uncomfortable, at one stage I even found myself laying under the mattress just to try to keep warm! Eventually, the door opened and there stood a familiar face, Detective Jenkins, "Alright, we're ready for you Mr Clark" he said, leading me to an interview room. When we got into the room the Detective warned me to be careful of a rubber strip they had around the center of the wall, saying that if it's touched a swarm of police rush to the room as they're used for police protection when suspects get violent, he then pressed record on a tape deck and started the interview. "Interview commencing at 7:33pm on the 14th September 2016, suspect, Alex Clark" he started "So Alex, where were you last night between the hours of 8 and 11pm?" "I've already been over this, I went over to my mum's house and my sister told me she had just left to come to mine, I went back home and waited around until about 9pm, then I went to the shop, got a bottle of whiskey, went back home and had a drink until I fell asleep" "Where did you buy the whiskey?" he asked, "The corner shop, just down the road from my house" "And how did you get to the shop?" "I walked" "Ok, ok, so you didn't go to the garage on Dacrelands Road then?" he asked, looking suspicious At this point I knew that the Detective knew something, and I knew I wouldn't be able to lie my way out of this one but I had to try something to get out of this room and out of this dimension, "Yes, yes I went there earlier in the evening to fill my car up" I replied "So where is your car now?" he asked, "It's not on your front drive" "A friend borrowed it" I said, being the first thing that came to mind "And what about later that night? We have CCTV footage of you being abusive to on of the store assistants at the garage" the Detective went on Something I knew was a lie, as the CCTV in that place is really messed up and unless the recording was stopped just after I left, something I highly doubt, there is no way he's got me on video in that garage. "You must be mistaken Detective, I never went back to the garage after fueling up my car" "Yes, your car, the one your friend conveniently borrowed, it was found in Back Acre Forrest, somebody had set it on fire and abandoned it, care to explain?" "It's got nothing to do with me" I said, "And I'll be having words with my friend when I get out too!" "Look Mr Clark, you can drop the act" the Detective said, "Here's what I think happened, you drove over to your mother's, found out she wasn't there, then hit her on your way home, you went to the garage, got a bottle of whiskey, went up to the forest and had yourself a drunken bonfire trying to dispose of any evidence, we've got footage of you in the garage and your sister saw you with your car" He was close, I'll give him that, his order was a bit wrong but he was close none the less, "Alright, I'm going to level with you" I said, "May I have a pen and paper, this will be a bit difficult to explain otherwise" "Are you admitting it?" he asked "No, quite the opposite, Detective, I'm proving how wrong you really are" Intrigued by this remark, the Detective handed me over a piece of paper which I ripped into two pieces, on one I wrote "I did not kill my mum" and on the other I wrote "I did kill my mum", the Detective explaining what I was doing for the tape, to which I confirmed this, "You see Detective, these two pieces of paper represent out frames of mind right now" I started explaining, "We're currently living in two separate versions of reality which are in the process of colliding into each other, in my reality, I know I didn't kill my mum, but in your's you believe I did" "You're not making any sense, Mr Clark" "You don't get it, do you, Detective?" I asked, "Ok, let me make this simple, may I have two glasses please, one with water, one without?" Part One | Part Two | Part Three Category:Original Category:Nico Wonderdust Category:Reality Category:Series